Oilfield workers die in Atascosa County crash

Updated 10:14 pm, Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Atascosa County emergency personnel prepare to transport one of three men involved in a one-vehicle wreck late Monday night. Two oilfield workers from Arkansas were killed and a third was injured.

Atascosa County emergency personnel prepare to transport one of three men involved in a one-vehicle wreck late Monday night. Two oilfield workers from Arkansas were killed and a third was injured.

Photo: For The Express-News, Xavier J. Garcia

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Atascosa County emergency personnel prepare to transport one of three men involved in a one-vehicle wreck late Monday night. Two oilfield workers from Arkansas were killed and a third was injured.

Atascosa County emergency personnel prepare to transport one of three men involved in a one-vehicle wreck late Monday night. Two oilfield workers from Arkansas were killed and a third was injured.

Photo: For The Express-News, Xavier J. Garcia

Oilfield workers die in Atascosa County crash

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Two oilfield workers from Arkansas were killed and one was injured in a single-vehicle rollover late Monday night in Atascosa County, according to Texas Department of Public Safety officials.

Just before midnight, Shawn Patrick Nichols, 36, was driving a pickup north on Interstate 37, near mile marker 104, when he veered off of the roadway, a DPS communications operator said. The truck careened into the center median, where it overturned, officials said.

In the last four months of 2011, five oilfield workers were killed in crashes in South Central Texas, according to published reports. A DPS trooper at the time said the increase in crashes was likely due to an increase in traffic associated with the drilling boom in the Eagle Ford Shale formation.